Robbie Carter (D)
Term limited in 2007
District Map

2002 Senate Race (Runoff)
Mary Landrieu (D) 8,016 (70%)
Suzy Terrell (R) 3,508 (30%)

2003 Governors Race (Runoff)
Kathleen Blanco (D) 10,061 (72%)
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 3,813 (28%)

2004 Presidential Race
George W. Bush (R) 6,460 (38%)
John Kerry (D) 10,165 (60%)
Others 280 (2%)

2004 Senate Race
David Vitter (R) 6,287 (39%)
Chris John (D) 5,462 (34%)
Others 4,501 (27%)

2006 Secretary of State Race
Jay Dardenne (R) 1,873 (26%)
Francis Heitmeier (D) 3,167 (45%)
Mike Francis (R) 823 (12%)
Mary Chehardy (R) 566 (8%)
Others 664 (9%)

2007 Governors Race
“Bobby” Jindal (R) 4,381 (35%)
Walter Boasso (D) 3,153 (25%)
John Georges (I) 1,948 (16%)
Foster Campbell (D) 2,700 (22%)
Others 367 (2%)

2007 Agriculture Commissioner Race
“Bob” Odom (D) 7,136 (62%)
Mike Strain (R) 2,959 (26%)
Wayne Carter (R) 1,057 (9%)
Don Johnson (R) 377 (3%)

The northern fringes of the Florida Parishes are a study in contrasts: graceful plantation homes coexisting with areas with rampant poverty and some of the best funded schools in the state miles away from some of the poorest.

District 72 embodies these contrasts. It includes the northernmost portions of West Feliciana, East Feliciana, and St. Helena parishes, then heads south along I-55 in Tangipahoa Parish to include several inner-city Hammond precincts. It has a 56% African-American voting majority and was designed to elect an African-American.  It is also a safely Democratic district. Democratic statewide candidates can count on receiving at least 70% of the vote here. Even John Kerry, while carrying only 10 parishes statewide, still received 60% of the vote here. And while David Vitter carried the district 39-34%, his “victory” was entirely due to the split in the Democratic vote.

Despite the design of the district, it has only elected white Democrats, like House District 21 in the Delta. For a while, it had turbulent elections. It ousted incumbents in 1983 and 1987 and re-elected “Buster” Guzzardo in the 1991 and 1995 runoffs with 57%. This turbulence began to wane in the late 1990s. In 1996, Guzzardo was the first elected official to be convicted from the FBI gambling probe going on at that time. Democrat Robbie Carter was then elected in his place and has won re-election with increasing margins, receiving 82% of the vote in 2003.

Representative Carter is term-limited in 2007 and is running for Sheriff of St. Helena Parish. We rate this seat as a “Democratic hold.” Rep. Carter noted in a 2005 interview with PoliticsLa.com that his district “…has over 2,000 state employees and a lot of low income families. It is a very safe district for Democrats.” He also noted that “it is one of the safest in the state.”

Even though Republicans are not likely to win this district anytime soon, this is a race worth watching because, despite the redrawing of district lines to elect an African-American, none have been successful so far. That may change this year: four of the five Democrats running (Walter Daniels, Ivory Dyson, Mike Jackson, and attorney George Tucker) are African-American. The lone white candidate is attorney John Bel Edwards.